Renault announces the arrival of Luc Julia, the co-creator of Siri’s ancestor, but also an expert in augmented intelligence. This follower of Hawaiian shirts will have the mission of infusing tech culture within the functions and brands of the group.
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Certainly, we would like to have the family photo of the next management committee at Renault: on the one hand, the traditional suits and ties; on the other, one of the most famous Hawaiian tech shirts worn by the Franco-American Luc Julia. This new recruit becomes responsible for R&D on the software part for all the brands of the automotive group.
Let’s recognize that until now, Luca de Meo (ex-CEO of Seat), the boss of Renault, has done quite well in his transfer window by poaching Gilles Le Borgne (R&D) and Gilles Vidal (Design), both ex-employees by PSA. Without forgetting Christian Stein, the new director of communication for the Renault brands, a former seat at Seat and close to Luca de Meo when he was president of the Spanish manufacturer.
But the master stroke of the moment is the recruitment of Luc Julia, co-inventor with Adam Cheyer of Siri, Apple’s voice assistant. The Frenchman, who also holds American nationality, is considered one of the popes of artificial intelligence, even if he prefers to speak of “increased intelligence“.
Luc Julia is leaving Samsung following the Korean giant’s decision to regroup its R&D teams in Seoul, a resolution “incompatible with his vision“. In January 2021, while in Paris, he met Luca de Meo, after a phone call from the latter having heard of his presence on French soil. It was during this evening, of which he will say that “it was one of the most pleasant moments he had with a boss”, that Luc Julia lets himself be seduced by Luca de Meo, who “wants to design technological objects and wants to make changes“. A boon for the Franco-American who wishes to offer”technology for real people“.
To our colleagues from Challenges who interviewed him, the new boss of the software division said he wanted “work in commando mode on projects that can be integrated very quickly into vehicles, within six or twelve months“. Luc Julia will play, according to Renault,”the role of expert in fields as diverse as artificial intelligence, human-machine interfaces, connectivity and software. He will supervise research and development on these technologies and innovations with a view to their integration into the Group’s product and service plan.“.
However, it will continue to travel back and forth between Silicon Valley, “lung of global innovation“, and his office in Boulogne-Billancourt where he will spend ten days a month (source Challenges – paid item).
A tireless jack-of-all-trades
After having scoured the CNRS laboratories to Silicon Valley, via MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Luc Julia created and participated in the launch of a few unicorns. Mention may in particular be made of Nuance Communications, Orb Networks or SRI International. Subsequently, the graduate of the National School of Telecommunications (Paris) will work for HP (connected printers), Apple and even BMW (autonomous cars).
In 2012, he was recruited by Samsung as vice president of innovation. He will be in charge of the development of the Internet of Things (IoT), but also artificial intelligence. In 2018, return to France with the creation of the Samsung Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (SAIL) in Paris.
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